By Nippon's lotus ponds; pen pictures of real Japan . n the embankment; the thatched huts or elsegrey, heavy-tiled farmhouses ordinarily pasted, asit were, in little village groups on the steep hillsides(since more suitable soil must be reserved for til-lage), or else huddled together under persimmontrees or pine below a wooded knoll; here and thereartificial ponds constructed for the purpose of irri-gating; the little evergreen groves, which with ashady dome overhang the many wayside shrines, orelse in some little nook of the road a few clustersof slender, polished bamboos; the old graveyards
By Nippon's lotus ponds; pen pictures of real Japan . n the embankment; the thatched huts or elsegrey, heavy-tiled farmhouses ordinarily pasted, asit were, in little village groups on the steep hillsides(since more suitable soil must be reserved for til-lage), or else huddled together under persimmontrees or pine below a wooded knoll; here and thereartificial ponds constructed for the purpose of irri-gating; the little evergreen groves, which with ashady dome overhang the many wayside shrines, orelse in some little nook of the road a few clustersof slender, polished bamboos; the old graveyardsthickly set with moss-covered, rustic tombstones—appearing from a distance like a battalion of sturdylittle Japanese soldiers guarding the silent dead;the banks of every little streamlet meandering downpast terraces and slimy rice fields, lined with pinesand other small growth which commonly form thecentre support of slender and unique-shaped stacks,composed of neatly fixed-up bunches of rice andbarley straw, reaching as high as thirty feet to the. CHARM OF RURAL SCENERY 185 limbs—this often in the place of a barnyard; thewhole country being made up of striking, miniaturevalleys and mountains, with the variety of climatefound between Canada and Florida, where throughthe entire year the carefully fertilized fields, withalmost magical rapidity, give birth to a harvest ofbarley and immediately again are turned into apaddy field, where young shoots of transplanted ricego to make the other main harvest of the secondhalf year. All this combines to invariably create inthe beholder a longing to put the scene on canvas. But where the eye is ravished with delight, theolfactory organs are too often outraged. For theenriching of the soil; barnyard fertilizers and othersmade from fish are more or less utilized; then thecity sewage is carted away to the rural districts,nightly and almost daily, by human labour—^buxomred-cheeked farmer lassies often sharing in this procession
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Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidbynipponslotuspo00klei
